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I Tried to Live on Minimum Wage for a Week

By GOV. TED STRICKLAND

July 27, 2014

Thankfully, I did this by myself. For millions of Americans, a minimum wage salary has to cover an entire family. Right now, in America, a minimum wage worker is spending her workday worrying about a decision she is going to have to make when she finally makes it home. Will it be electricity or diapers this week? Medicine or gas?

It has been five years since the federal minimum wage was raised to $7.25. While some cities and states have acted to raise their own minimum wages, many have stood still, content to let their workers effectively make less and less each year. When the federal minimum wage was increased in July 2009, gas averaged $2.45 per gallon. Today, it is $3.55, meaning filling a car with a 12-gallon tank would cost an extra $13.20. That might not sound like much, but it is close to two hours of work on a minimum wage salary. The same can be said for even more basic needs, like a gallon of milk, which is nearly 75 cents more per gallon than it was in July 2009.

Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 will increase the average annual salary of a minimum wage worker to $19,777, hardly a living wage, but a major step forward for the 30 million hardworking Americans who live in poverty while earning the minimum wage.

I have an apartment here in Washington and a good job. I know I’ll never be able to truly walk in the shoes of a minimum wage worker, but experiencing just some of the decisions this income requires on a daily basis is enough to understand that we need to do better for these hardworking families. It’s un-American that you can work and work and work and not get out of poverty. The promise of America is that working hard and playing by the rules will help you get ahead, but right now, we’re breaking that promise. It’s time to give America a raise.

Former Gov. Ted Strickland (D-Ohio) is president of the Center for American Progress Action Fund and counselor to the Center for American Progress.